Dear friends and members of the Progressive Maryland community,

It is with deep sadness that I share the passing of our beloved friend and longtime board member, Maria Dennis.

Maryland, past the first brutal heat wave, settles down to a typical post-Fourth summer -- that long but always-too-short span until Labor Day. As Progressive Maryland's executive director, Larry Stafford, points out in a blog post today, the results of primary elections around the state (many just certified) reflect an electorate looking for change and dissatisfied with the same-old performance, including from establishment Democrats in this Business Blue state. Civic activists once dismissed as too "radical" and on the margin are now stepping up into the close-in public sphere -- and winning. As the news has related (and mainstream news agonized over) such candidates are winning around the country, from New York to Colorado to Maine. Much of it is a fight-back sensibility responding to Trump's increasingly shameless looting and grifting. The outcome of his increasing turn to Mussolini-style self aggrandizement (and plummeting approval ratings) may be more consequential than imagined. A whole framework of oligarchic top-down governance could be rejected -- for the long term. And, it may be, not only for the errant Executive Branch. The increasingly off-base Supreme Court might find itself in the bind described by the columnist Finley Peter Dunne's caricature Mr. Dooley, the mock-sage who opined "No matter whether th' constitution follows th' flag or not, th' Supreme Court follows th' iliction returns." 

We should not be surprised by the public's reaction to Trump's zany hatred of wind power and other renewables, his ruinous (and judicially rejected) tariffs or his wacky decision to follow Israel's right-wing leadership into war on Iran. It boils down very nicely to "affordability," which the public appears to understand more completely than (certainly) the MAGA gang as well as some of the mainstream Democratic Party leadership. Who comes to their senses first will be knowable in November. Somehow we doubt it will be the MAGA faithful under the thumb of an increasingly dotty Trump.

But there's more. A big take on how the Department of Homeland Security has learned to keep immigration enforcement out of the public eye. States are coming up with new ways to manage data centers (and public unrest about them). And a close look at the hucksterism that surrounded the nation's 250th, and who's raking in the dough. Are women losing ground worldwide after years of rapid progress? And how people get confused by "Sell Date" labels, and what it means for food waste.

It's News You Can Use for this week. Read on.

Across Maryland’s 2026 primary elections, voters made something unmistakably clear: the era of politics driven primarily by corporate money and establishment consensus is being challenged, and in many places, replaced.

From Baltimore City to Montgomery County to Prince George’s County, voters backed candidates running on affordability, housing, public education, healthcare access, and economic justice in some of the most closely watched and heavily contested races in the state.

What emerged was not a series of isolated outcomes, but a pattern: a growing progressive movement that is increasingly organized, increasingly competitive, and increasingly capable of winning across geography and political terrain.

Welcome to News You Can Use for this week, capped by the Inglorious Fourth of Trump Triumph.

The Baltimore Sun's relentless pursuit of Gov. Moore's military record vs. his recollections and statements -- pretty obvious to any press observer in Maryland -- gets scrutiny on a professional level from the Columbia Journalism Review up there in New York. The Sun is owned by a very conservative broadcast executive who (by this account) does a certain amount of micromanaging the news content at the once-revered daily. So depending on your politics, this is either fake news from an elite Ivy institution's J-school, or an example of Maryland news practices catching the critical eye of a longtime and respected watchdog of the press. Take a look at the CJR report and pick a side.

We also have other news from Maryland about state efforts to keep our folks' head above water as the Trump administration continues to thin out resources that were appropriated (but not now defended) by a supine Congress. And you may not always enjoy the Beltway, or I-70/270 or I-68, but a new study on the 70th anniversary of the Interstate Highway System includes data on how much it saves in lives, time, money and tanksful of gas or diesel. And how much more the country should be spending to keep it up. Megan E of People's Action, coincidentally, charts in her report how much money Trump is seeking for the military so we can lose more ill-conceived wars. Just think of how many potholes those bucks would fill.

Ignore Trump; try to make July 4 count just the way YOU want it to.

It's News You Can Use for this week. Read on. 

The news surrounding tomorrow's Maryland primary burbles around the likelihood that many races will be decided tomorrow, not in November. Lots of money is changing hands to the benefit of favored (maybe, compliant) candidates and some of it appears to be coming from behind aliases. The deadline is closing in for a possible special session of the Assembly to ease the path to reapportionment, still a source of unease.. Big races are coming up tomorrow around the country, too, while Trump's approval hits new lows amid global supply-chain shocks. "We need plot twists," Trump avows, but he may be too tied up to twist. Fun times. It's News You Can Use.

The Memo will be posted here after the email version has been sent.